READ ME 1ST: Magic SEA is undergoing a radical content change. More specific contents will be housed in a few blogs with restricted access. This is to make sure that only suitable and comprehensive materials for intended readers. All materials are for entertainment purposes only.

Monday, August 14, 2017

Mountain ghost is a term originated from a classic Chinese work describing the romance of a beautiful lady mountain spirit with her lovers.There are a handful of information concerning the mountain ghost in the intranet.I am not about to reiterate the story of mountain ghost from old Chinese literature but to tell you my very strange encounter near the peak of a mountain in Banjaran Bintang fairly recently.It was early in the morning, around 8am that I started to hike up the mountain. About two hours later, when I was approaching the level of around 1000m, the sky suddenly turned gloomy and the scene in front of me suddenly covered by a blanket of dense fog.Since the visibility is less than 10m, I decided just to stay put at where I was while waiting for the fog to clear away.A few minutes later, I heard sounds of footsteps descending from uphill direction. At first, I saw the silhouette of a figure walking towards me. Then, a lady appeared before me.Of course you may argue that she was probably another mountain hiker. I cannot argue with you but this lady really doesn't look like any ordinary mountain hiking lady for she was wearing a tight one-piece short black dress. And this modern looking lady had short curly black hair and a pair of fair long legs.When the lady approached me, she suddenly stopped in front of me and started to talk.Lady: "What are you doing here?"Me: "Looking for herbs."Lady: "Maybe I can help. What type of plant are you looking for?"I looked at the lady and after some hesitation, I said: "Snake head flower.""I can show you one with a condition." The lady smiled and answered.Me: "I have no money but if I can help, then I will."Lady: "You will find a big plant just at the edge of the ravine. You must use your bare hands to pull it out or it will not survive. When you have gotten this plant, leave at once without looking back. Do not return to this place within 3 months' period.""What do you want in exchange?" I asked puzzled."I will tell you later..." The lady smiled and gave a strange look.After our brief conversation, the lady continued to descend the slope. Strange as it was, the fog also dispersed as soon as the lady has vanished from my sight.I decided to follow her instruction and true enough, I found the plant I want and brought it back.On the night, the lady came before me in my dream. She said: "I am the daughter of mountain god and I couldn't to go to the outside world as I am forbidden to cross the state boundary unless a human brought me out."I asked: "Where are you now?""In that plant you brought back..." she answered.I woke up and I found myself having a wet dream.A few days after I brought down the plant, heavy rain started to pour affecting many places in the country. A fellow mountain hiker told me that landslide occurred at that particular mountain and the route is now closed for public.Perhaps spirit world can get as modern as our human world too? Unfortunately I have no answer for you now, I will tell you more when the mountain lady came to me again...

Thursday, August 10, 2017

There are two places that you don't want to get yourself possessed. The first is by the waters, and the next is in a mountain. The former would expose the possessed to the risk of drowning and the later may cause serious injuries or even missing forever.My friend, James had this experience of being possessed in the hike of Bukit Hijau in Kedah some years ago. Bukit Hijau is different from Gunung Hijau but with many spooks as well. At that time James was working in a MNC company in the Hi-Tech Park. He is one of those modern folks that would not believe in supernatural stuffs. Since James is a nature lover, he naturally like to go into nature such as hike up hills.Before James resigned, he thought of hiking up the Bukit Hijau with a few close friends and I was just tag along to make up the numbers. Not that I am close to James; I had my own agenda which is to look at the rare plants over there.To ease our group travel, we decided to hire a licensed guide to take the lead.We assembled at the foot of Bukit Hijau around 8am and after making sure that everything was in order, the guide asked us to start hiking.The weather was fine and clear although it rained the night before. The guide, Mr. Hassan is an experience one and before the hike, he cautioned us on the do's and don'ts in the hill area.Everyone nodded and Hassan walked first followed by James with me at the back.As we walked in a file, I heard James's voice came from the front: "Hey, Hassan! I heard the area near the waterfall is quite haunted...""There were a few casualties but we should not talk something like that at this juncture. We shall take a break at the waterfall area." Hassan replied without turning his head and without slowing down his pace.After about an hour of hiking, we came to the waterfall. It was time to take a break. Hassan pointed his finger towards a corner of the waterfall and cautioned everyone that a few people was found drowned there and that it is better off to stay away for good.Just as when Hassan finished his words, loudmouth James then asked: "Do you think there are water ghost around here?"Good manner Hassan shrugged and smiled without answering James's question.The group was allowed to take a 30 minutes break and we all dispersed to do our own business. As I was searching around for orchid plants to photograph, suddenly I heard a commotion came from the waterfall."James, what are you doing in the river?" The frantic voice of Jess was heard.That has certainly attracted the attention of others including Hassan. As everyone turned his/her attention towards where Jess's voice came from, I saw James was walking into the river towards the waterfall with his head dropped.Hassan was very quick to react. He immediately rushed to James and put his arms around Jame's chest in an attempt to drag James back to shore. All group members came to aid but James were very powerful and everyone who tried to secure James were flung away.Luckily just before James made another attempt to go into the water, Hassan took out a handful of coarse salt and threw at James. As soon as the salt grains stroke James, he immediately fell onto the ground.Someone sprinkled some cold water onto Jame's face and some smeared oilment on his temples in an attempt to revive him.A few minutes later, James was himself again. While staring at the crowd, James asked: "What are you guys doing surrounding me?""You were possessed and nearly drown your self!" Hassan said calmly.Perhaps James has read our minds from our inquisitive stares, he said: "While I was washing my hands at the shore, I saw a lady waved at me in the whirlpool by the waterfall. When I was about to help the lady in distress, heavy rain started to pour and the lady was gone. The next thing I knew was seeing you guys surrounding me..."After James's inexplicable experience, we decided to call off the expedition. Perhaps James was really enchanted by previous drowned ghosts because of his loudmouth? Only God knows!

A Desperado sent me a message indicating that he has lost his way in life and that he has no direction to go in his 50s. Initially Desperado wanted to make cakes to sell in the market after receiving some advice from a fortune teller near where he stays.But the second time Desperado visited the said fortune teller, the Desperado was told by the fortune teller that he is not good in marketing and that the Desperado would lead a very lonely old age.At the end, Desperado came to me for advice.After studying the astrology chart of this Desperado, my advice to him are:1. Since his chart shows that this Desperado is quite proud of himself and that he could hardly work in a group; then the best option for him is to start his own business in a small way first. Making cakes to sell in a local market is a good start.2. This Desperado is also quite talented and he has good public relation skills but he would not lower himself in doing marketing. So, instead of asking others to sell for him; he can actually start selling his cakes in the Facebook, Blogs or intranets. Of course, everything takes time and this Desperado really needs to sink in to his business with perseverance.3. His reading shows that since he has wasted some 20 years of his life non-productive between 34-53, and now in the mid 50's and without too much help from his siblings and family; this Desperado can only do his business in the scale that he could manage.4. Presently in the mid 50's, Desperado must really take care of his health rather than doing business alone.In short, my advice to Desperado would just be do whatever he likes most in the scale he can manage and watch over his health. I like to be optimistic, but really, in mid 50's; a person should strive to maintain his financial status rather than attacking all out. Also, while doing his cake selling business, Desperado should try to open up himself and help others. It is only when he makes more friends that he would not feel so lonely and worry who will accompany him when he is old. Well, this world is not made of one person alone. That is for sure. So, good luck to Desperado. I hope he can see light in his near future.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Not all traditional herbalists understands magic. There are many amateur herbalists who like to plough the jungle for herbs. Not many people know that collection of flora and fauna in jungle is prohibited by law, random picking of plants or stones may bring a person into troubles too...A fellow herbalist of mine, Mr. Woo is a seasoned self-made herbalist who liked to go everywhere to collect rare herbs. Normally Woo will go in a group of people into jungle for a day or two for herbs collection and most of the time nothing supernatural happened. Except once.During a herb hunting trip to Fraser Hill a few years ago, Woo collected many rare herbs until he has lost count of how many herbs he has really collected.At midnight, someone banged Woo's front door frantically. Woo went to answer the door and as soon as Woo opened the door, he saw a lady in green looked pretty stressed.The lady looked anxiously at Woo and said: "Please return my child to me or he will die soon!"The still sleepy Woo could not make any sense of the lady's words and he just replied: "Wrong number, lady!" And then, Woo slammed shut the front door; and went to sleep.Then the next night exactly at the same hour, the knocking started on Woo's front door again. Woo opened the door and there it stood the same lady in green staring at him. Only that this time, the lady showed slight anger and uttered: "If you don't return my child, you will be sorry!"Again, Woo dismissed the lady as a lunatic and slammed the door.The next morning, Woo thought of the strange knocking at night and he has no clue that he has by any chance 'abducted' someone's child. Since Woo was not superstitious, he again dismissed the incident. There was no more knocking on the following nights.Two weeks later, Woo again joined another group to hunt herbs in the jungle. Just half way the jeep Woo was in went up the hill, a lady suddenly run in front of the jeep and in order to avoid ramping into the lady; the driver applied on the emergency brake.Unfortunately, Woo who was sitting at the back of the jeep was caught by surprised and as he didn't take a good grasp of the jeep railing; he was flung out from his seat into a deep ravine by the road.Woo's companion quickly informed the authority and a search and rescue team was dispatched. Woo was eventually found a few hours later with a broken leg and unconscious.I heard of Woo's mishap and went to visit him in the hospital. Woo was able to relate to me that before he passed away, he saw the same lady in green appeared before him and she said: "You took my child, I take your leg. You shall not hike anymore!"True enough, with a metal support implanted inside Woo's right leg; hill hiking is not an advisable things to do.

To me, it would be beneficial for a magician of any school to do mountain hiking alone or in a group. This is the only time that this magician can appreciate what he/she learnt is of any relevance to his/her life or otherwise.There are those so-called 'couch magician' who only likes to talk and collect magic rituals but hate to get his/her hands dirty. This type of folks will never appreciate and apply the power of magic to help him/her in solving his/her problems.To Thai magic practitioner, going out to nature is a must and not an option. I have tried it, and return to tell you my side of the story; so should you.There is nothing special about what a magician should do to go up a mountain or hill in that matter. There are physical and spiritual considerations:The physical considerations for a magician and others are the same but varies according to person to person. Things to consider:

Own physical ability and stamina. This will determine how long a person can walk up and down a hill/mountain. The most difficult part is not to go up but to come down from the hill as this is the time when your knees suffer the most impact. Also, once a person is tired, his/her mind doesn't work well and the ability to judge would fall. So, please stop and return when you feel tired and cold.

The best thing is to hire a guide but a magician might not want to consider this option as he/she normally works alone. So, a magician must watch his/her ration on what should be brought up the hill: basic food, beverages, clothing, torchlight, knife etc. sufficient for the trip. Also, please remember that a kilo of weight added means a kilo of burden on your back.

Understand the weather pattern and the geography of the hill/mountain. For example, the Northeastern monsoon would bring a large quantity of water to Peninsular towards the end and beginning of the year. So, this is not an ideal time to hike. Naturally, wetness brings out the leeches and the rest of poisonous creatures too.

A novice hiker should just stick to the original path: the way up is also the way down. I can almost guarantee that mountainous regions are just like mazes. Every trip up and down is not the same; that I can promise you. Once I missed a very interesting plant but when I returned, I could never find it again.

If you are alone, never try to return to get what you have lost in the mountainous area. If you do, you may get lost and it is not worth the risk.

So much for the physical considerations. Now let's look at the spiritual sides:

Perform smoke offering a day before your hiking trip will save you a lot of troubles later. I have found out that this Tibetan ritual received well by mountain gods in general. But once I have performed the smoke offering or fire ritual, I wouldn't be able to find what I want because the power of the offering has caused the spirits to stay away from the practitioners.

A more mild approach is to make offerings of tobacco, pop rice, betel nuts and leaves when you have reached the destination. I can assure you that you will find many pleasant surprises along your trip.

Communicate with your guardian spirits as this is the time to rely on them and to test their ability to assist you alone in the jungle.

Please don't pluck any flowers or plants, or bring back any items from the jungle unless you have something to exchange; or with the permission of the local spirits. Many things can happen if you have taken what is no permissible. On the other hand, if the spirits give you the permission; then everything should be smooth.

Finally, please use your own judgement and don't rely too much on the spirits because spirits too, are evil and they will take back what is given to you. So, after you have gotten what you want; leave the place ASAP and never look back.Of course, other gurus may have other advice to their students. The question is: is your guru up to the job to advise you?

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

You might wonder where I went to for a couple of weeks? Well, I went up the Banjaran Bintang and I will tell you my story...Due to my interests in getting rare herbs and to enhance my Thai magic, I frequent myself to hike up the Banjaran Bintang mountain ranges in the Northern Peninsula to look for those plants normally grown high above the mountain.To local folks, a mountain range is a mysterious and dangerous place to be at for those decent folks. Set aside the steep landscape to overcome, the weather in the mountain can change very fast too: a clear scene ahead can turn into foggy over half an hour or so.The tropical rain forest too is infested with many poisonous animals, insects and leeches too just to name a few. Unlike the common lowland species, mountain leeches are normally large and green in color; and they could 'jump' onto an unwary traveler at close range.So a season mountain hiker would prepare some salt or tobacco water to be smeared on his body to ward off those blood suckers. Of course, modern insect repellents work too. The bottom line is that one must wear long stocking, long pants and long sleeve shirt.Ideally too and in most instances, mountainous jungles in Malaysia is a forbidden place for ordinary folks. Anyone who wishes to enter a jungle must first hire a guide and inform the local forestry department. This precautionary act is to ensure that in case of emergency, help can be dispatch quickly to save lives.No one practically enters a mountainous jungle now a days alone. So said, I am a lone ranger and it is not quite possible to gather a group of people to look for herbs. Hence, other than crossing my fingers for luck, I relied very much on my practice of Thai magic and Tibetan ritual frankly speaking.My area of concentration is mainly the Banjaran Bintang ranges as I could catch the weather pattern over there and hence avoiding many problems. For example, the best time to go up the mountain would be early in the morning and descend before 2~3pm to avoid rain fall. However, if it rains in the morning; then it is best to call off the hiking plan as nothing would go smooth for the whole day.After a few trips to and fro from Banjaran Bintang, a creature came to me in the form of a snake head with wide opening bloody mouth. It identified itself as the mountain god of Banjaran bintang.At first, I dismissed the creature as just a dream. Then strange thing started to happen...During one of my herbs hunting trip on Banjaran Bintang, I was hiking up a section of the mountain range searching frantically looking for arisaema species. Nothing was found after walking for an hour or more, I knew that my time was running out. So, I said to my self: "Give me one plant and I shall return, just one plant..."I continued to walk while repeating my words and after a few minutes, an arisaema plant came before me and I happily plucked it and just as I have turned my back, I saw that the whole place was filled with arisaema!Naturally I dared not collect anymore and hurried home. Strange enough, just as when I reached the foot of the mountain; heavy rain started to pour. I thought had I delayed for a few minutes longer, I would be trapped inside the mountain..A few weeks later, I ventured for another trip to hike up the Bintang mountain range. This time I brought some food offerings for the mountain god. As before, I walked and walked but saw nothing interesting. So I decided to return home. Very strangely too, as soon as I have thrown away all of the food offerings; many strange and rare plants came into my view.After getting a handful of herbs, I returned home only to find some of my stuffs went missing. My guru said that the mountain god wanted me to give it something in exchange.I thought it was my carelessness naturally.Then I ventured on a third trip to hunt for another herb that I always wanted. As usual I brought some offerings and as before, nothing was found on the mountain. So I prayed to the mountain god: "Give me the plant I want and I will continue to do Thai magic."Strangely too, after murmuring a few words; the path before me suddenly widened and I walked forward. There, just a few feet in front of me was the plant I wanted for so long. It was a huge plant and I only had a small bag... Somehow I managed to bring it down miraculously.Again, some of my hand tools went missing... perhaps the mountain god wanted something in exchange. I didn't return to look for the missing stuff and again, it started to rain just as I have descended down from the mountain!That night, I went to a supermarket to buy some item. As I stood on an elevator, a gigantic lady weighing more than 150kg just a few flight in front of me suddenly fell backwards and took somersault; and she laid face down almost making me a pancake!Miraculously too, the lady was okay as she could still raise her head and smiled at me...I visited my master the next day, and he said that it was a warning from the mountain god that I must keep my promise to continue with my Thai magic... So, maybe I am stuck with Thai magic after all! Believe it or not?